SLR receives National Recognition Award at ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards Gala for Steele Creek restoration project

SLR has been honored by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) at the 2023 Engineering Excellence Award Gala with a National Recognition Award for the design of the Steele Creek restoration and flood mitigation project for the Village of Ilion, NY. The Engineering Excellence Awards are one of the industry’s most prestigious and rigorous engineering competitions and are presented to projects that showcase complexity, engineering innovation and value to society.

About the Steele Creek restoration and flood mitigation project

Severe flooding-related damage had been reported along Steele Creek in the village of Ilion, New York, for over a century. These issues escalated as the Village grew and development increasingly encroached on the creek’s floodplain.

To mitigate these chronic flooding problems, the village engaged SLR to design and implement a solution that would address existing flooding problems and ensure that future flooding events would have minimal effect on the community.

Major project components that led to a solution included the removal of a dam; removal of sediments behind the dam to lower the channel bed; demolition and removal of flood prone homes along the creek; removal of flood prone roadways; widening of the Steele Creek channel; creation of floodplain; replacement of a hydraulically undersized bridge and retrofitting of a second bridge; installation of in-stream habitat features; utility relocations; and construction of a sanitary sewer pump station to replace a gravity sewer line that had passed under Steele Creek.

The award-winning team included members of SLR’s transportation, engineering, water resource engineering, surveying, and landscape architect teams and subconsultants: Templeton Landscape Architecture & Planning; Hudson Mohawk Archaeological Consultants, LLC; CME Associates, Inc.; and Lynstaar Engineering, PC.

The Steele Creek restoration and flood mitigation project first received the Diamond Award (the highest achievement) from the New York chapter of ACEC on March 24, 2023, where it was given consideration for the national award. The 2023 gala honored 179 projects from across the nation and helped to publicize the many significant contributions consulting engineers make to society.

Click here to read the full project story about the Steele Creek restoration and flood mitigation